


now that my broken bones all have been healed (I think I'm starting to feel)

by cinderlily



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: I have a lot of feelings, M/M, Possible Retirement, two years from now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 07:43:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10612359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: Mike sits in the locker room alone and thinks.





	

There weren’t many people there. It was, after all, days after the end of the season. But Mike was there. He was seated in front of his stall, having gotten the keys from Chris the head of security. He stared in and looked at the emptiness of it. He was the one to clear it out and it still felt like someone had stolen everything out of it. 

They’d lost. 

They’d made it to the second round, the very last game and they would have been the NL Champions… and they lost by two. His stomach was in a constant state of ache, his joints and his muscles joining in most days. It was one of those moments where he knew he was on a tipping point. 

Within a day of them losing they had almost instantly placed an offer on the table, and while it wasn’t exactly what he wanted it was most definitely more than a 38-year-old with bad knees deserved. He was getting a pity contract, he knew it. A pity contract from the team he had literally given every single ounce of himself to. 

Understandably his manager wanted him to take it. Of course he did, 17 percent of that contract wasn’t much but it was something. Blip had told him to take it, said that this time next year they’d be back on the hunt and the ring would be on his finger before his 40th birthday. Even Duartes had come to say that he wanted him to take it, saying he thought he might have a few things left to learn. Mike wondered who’d paid him to say that to him. 

His Physical Therapist had told him, without a flinch, he should call it a day. Said that he wasn’t getting young (gee thanks) and that the further wear and tear was not healing as he would want it to. Said to think of his future and what he wanted after baseball. But he didn’t know what he wanted after baseball. Rachel had called him the night that they were eliminated to say that she was sad he had to go out like that but at least they’d made the playoffs. Like she just knew he was not going to sign. 

And then there was Ginny. Ginny who, in the last few days, had made herself scarce. Had done interviews and gone around the topic of if Mike was retiring like she was smoothly avoiding a bat. He was curious as to what she thought if he was honest. 

They’d been playing together for two years, almost dating for six months and she was still a complete mystery most of the time. He knew what she liked and what she hated. Knew that if you gave her the choice of a night at a bar and a night at a charity event she wouldn’t even blink before throwing on jeans and a t-shirt to join the guys. Knew, without a doubt, that she loved him like he loved her. But then again she kept a lot of her emotions to her chest, especially about baseball. 

He looked down at his phone and saw that he had two missed calls from his agent and one from the front office. He exhaled and cleared the miss call list. There were times he wished that cell phones had yet to be invented and this was one of them. His life was so much easier when he wasn’t able to be contacted 24/7. 

His eyes wandered around the room. The locker room was definitely familiar. It still had that slightly musty smell of two many guy sweating, even if they had been airing it out over the last few days. It was deadly silent but he could hear the laughter and the frustration in every corner. 

If he wanted to he could probably name each and every guy who’d played in the stalls for longer than a few games. It had been his home for so long that he wasn’t who he had been when he walked in and he knew it. Hell, he wasn’t the same person who started the 2016 season. He was something new. Something, he hoped, was better. 

He rubbed at his knees and let his fingers find the scarred skin that had been left behind by who knew how many surgeries, rubbing away the phantom and the real aches of his body. When he was young he was told how your body aged as a catcher but the Show was too big for him to care about that. 

Al’s voice echoed in his brain. ‘It’ll catch up to you, kid.’ 

Even if he had fully understood it at age 19, he would have done it all over again. He knew it. Al knew it. It was just something in his blood. 

“Hey Old Man.” 

Mike jerked to the left to find Ginny at the locker room door, a Padres shirt and hat on over a tight pair of jeans. He looked her up and down and grinned. “Oh, over avoiding me?” 

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” she said calmly, walking over and sitting down at Blip’s chair. The rub of it was that he knew she wasn’t. 

“How’d you get in?”

She gave him a Cheshire grin. “Oh, you think you are the only one who can flirt with Chris.”

“I do not FLIRT with Chris,” he said, but then shrugged. “I mean, I _could_.” 

She shrugged. “I just bring in some brownies. He has a soft spot for that place down the street. We’ve got an agreement, I don’t tell his wife and he’s allll good.” 

“You got brownies without me? I’m hurt, Baker. I really am,” he said, but there was no heat behind it. He’d turned towards her and she had her hands on his knees, looking him over like she could read his mind. (Which was a very scary idea indeed.) 

After a long thirty seconds of her looking him up and down, she tilted her head and smiled. “We good?” 

He nodded before he could really think about the question but when he did a few things slotted into place. She nodded back and pulled herself a little closer to him in a way that might make things uncomfortable with Blip next year. 

“So, before next season. I’m thinking we’ve got to get a new throw in my rotation.”

“Oh do we?” he raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to be able to get a screwball down in the next four months. But even just up my cutter. The world has had two years of seeing us play together and we better shake it up. It’s how we’re going to shake up next year.” 

He placed a small kiss on her lips. “It’s not your cutter that needs work, it’s your fastball.” 

“We’ve talked about this,” she said, rolling her eyes as she stood up and yanked at his hand. 

“Yeah, we have,” he said. “So do you trust me?” 

She pulled him behind her and they headed out the door. He saw Chris munching on a tin of brownies. “Of course I trust you, Lawson.” 

“So, we’ll work on your fastball.” 

She looked over her shoulder and looked so happy and his whole body felt like it was ten years younger. He slipped his phone out of his pocket and sent out a text to his manager and one to the owners. Pity or not, he was signing that contract. 

“Come on," she said, a laugh following after her. "We’ll talk about it over brownies, Old Man.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I have a lot of freaking feelings right now because my Captain (Shane Doan) might retire. Also, I miss Mike and Ginny like breathing. There was no beta. Just a lot of freaking feelings.


End file.
